January 28, 2016

So I decided to email before sending pictures this week so that I can actually send a decent sized email. So apparently the district leaders who told our group that we could email on our free time were actually being super disobedient and I feel really bad for sending emails throughout the week because I didn't know. So I will only email on Thursdays now. It really feels like I've been here all of five seconds. Time is so weird in the MTC.

Here is a Finnish tongue twister:

Kokko, kokoo kokoon koko kokko.
Koko kokkoko?
Koko kokko.
 

THIS IS THE LANGUAGE THAT I AM TRYING TO LEARN.

Here is the translation:

Kokko(name), gather together the whole bonfire.
The whole bonfire?
The whole bonfire.

 LIKE WHAT?

But actually Suomi(Finnish) is a really beautiful language and I can at least pronounce most of the words now even if one word is like 20 syllables. We read the Suomi Mormonin Kirja (BOM) every day and that really helps. I can now say from memory Ja tahpatui (and it came to pass) very well. Also my English is getting worse. It's the joke in our district that we can't speak Suomi and we can't speak English. We just can't. My teachers here are amazing and so is my companion Sisar Carter. 

Before the MTC she worked in an assisted care living home for the elderly, her job consisted of helping people shower, cleaning up vomit, and poop and really gross stuff. She told our group that "You know it's a bad day when you're praying for solids." So now whenever we are getting stressed about the language we just say "solids" to remind ourselves how truly blessed we are. 

 

Apparently there are three stages of being on a mission.

1- the honeymoon phase 2- the hostile phase 3-the grin and bear it stage 4- enduring to the end stage
I would say that I'm halfway between 3 and 4. Definitely stage 3 in Suomi class.

 

I have recently learned that the average weight gain for my mission is 20-30 pounds!!!!! That cannot happen! Keep me in your prayers that I might resist the urge to eat the infinite amount of cookies and cheesecake brownies they try and distract us with at the MTC. We describe the food here as aggressively average. Although the other day I had a pretty sweet panini. We have MTC service projects every Wednesday morning from 6:25-7:40. (IN THE A.M.) I can now say that I have cleaned a men's restroom and I have concluded that boys are gross. Other than Wednesdays I start everyday at 6:30. I have breakfast and then depending on the days schedule I either go to class first or go workout first for an hour (it's awesome because half the time we just play volleyball). The three hour class in the morning is divided up equally between personal study (Just scriptures,preach my gospel, and writing in my journal.), companionship study ( we just plan our Finnish lessons for our fake investigator), and my favorite- language/grammar study. I love grammar soooooo much they only have like a million little rules that don't make any sense. And even our grammar book just gives up explaining things. There are literally passages that say that you can only learn some things in time so they don't feel the need to explain it entirely. So I only have to memorize the entire language "in time". Half the time we ask our teachers to explain certain things about grammar and they think about it for a second and then say "myöhemmin" or later.

Then we have lunch and then we go back for class from 1:15-5:25 although we usually get let out an hour early because FINNISH. We teach our fake investigator in this block and we study how to teach with the spirit and usually we do some grammar work. They teach us all of this only in Finnish and as always with a lot of pointing and charades. I definitively understand a lot more than I can say. Like A LOT. It's crazy that it's only been 2 weeks. Sisar Carter and I have written down the Finnish for "I will answer that in the next lesson" and we say it all the time because we can never respond but we almost always understand the question. Then dinner is 5:25- 6:10 and then class from 6:10- 9:30 but we get out at 9:10 every night. Bed time (yes we have bedtime) is at 10:30 and we LOVE bedtime so very very much. Our days are pretty regular and on Tuesdays we have devotionals instead of our last class which are really cool because it's always a member of the 70. On Thursdays we still wake up at 6:30 but we are allowed power naps throughout the day. Power naps are love. Power naps are life. We have scheduled temple time but everything else is optional until 6:10 when we still have the last class of the day.

 

I'm doing great here.

Minä teidän etta Jumala vastaa rukoiksiin. Minä todistan, etta me voimme teitää, että Mormonin kirja on totta, ja jos me rukoilemme ja että Phyä Henki opettaa meitä hiljaisten tunteiden välittyksellä. Minä todistan etta Jumala ja Jeesus Kristus ja Phyä Henki on aina läsnä.Teidän, että tämä on totta Phyän Hengen kautta. Jeesuksen Kristuksen nimessä. Aamen.

I know that God answers prayers. I testify, that we will be able to know, that the Book of Mormon is true, and if we say a prayer the Holy Ghost teaches us through quiet feelings. I testify that God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are always there. I know this is true through the Holy Ghost. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.